Today the Oilers ran their internal, annual skills competition. Here are some of the highlights:

– Taylor Chorney was the fastest skater.
– Kurtis Foster had the hardest shot at 103.7.
– Sam Gagner and Tom Gilbert each went 4-for-4 in the shooting accuracy competition.
– Andrew Cogliano won king of the shootout, although there were a few dazzling shootout moves taken (see below for highlights). As expected, Linus Omark, Magnus Paajarvi and Taylor Hall each had some amazing shootout moves. I’m not sure which one I’d give it to based on entertainment value. I’d say Paajarvi or Hall though, because Omark’s came out of his existing bag of tricks while Paajarvi and Hall pulled off something we’ve never seen before and some incredible stick work. I’d probably give it to Hall just based on being able to pull the move off in tight.

PRE-GAME RANT

Tonight the Oilers face the Dallas Stars, who are currently sitting at 3rd in the conference. They’ve been on a tear too, with 4 wins in a row (7-2-1 in their last 10). The Oilers are in the opposite situation, having had a tough time winning in their last 10 (2-7-1) and having dropped their last 3. I don’t see any reason to think that either streak will change tonight.

Horcoff is due back tonight, however (although not enough to swing things in our favor).

Prediction: 4-1 Stars

Also, rumors now starting of Penner or Hemsky being dealt before the deadline (barring any concussions), per the Fourth Period.

Some housekeeping. Inmotion hosting sucks balls. As you all know from this past weekend. So Racki went and found a new host. This new place costs money. More money. While we were willing to eat $100ish per year, the new $600 price tag isn’t something that I want to do. So you’ll probably be seeing advertising to cover some of those costs.

Also, you should see the second quarter review soon. I’m currently not happy with the team, so that should be fun.

The Oilers are a terrible team. Since Renney mentioned that the team had a chance to make the playoffs the team has only won twice. I fucking hate tanking too. I just can’t get excited for losing.

Hemsky’s hurt. Whitney out for season. Horcoff and Eberle are still hurt. Khabibulin still sucks. Tambellini still needs to assess the bottom 6 forwards.

Sigh. Anyways I’ll move on to stuff that doesn’t make me want to choke out Tambellini.

Looks like a possible jersey change for the Oilers next year. Found link on Puck Daddy.

Also looks like the Oilers may start next season in europe. This didn’t matter to me in the slightest until I remembered that I may be in the area for one of these. Then I got kinda happy.

Also, Hemsky, Eberle and Hall all got selected to the all-star game. Hemsky for the actual game, and Eberle and Hall for the skills competition (as rookies). Omark was also selected for the AHL all-star game.

In other league news…well I don’t really recall anything interesting that has happened. But the HBO 24/7 has finished up and if you haven’t seen it then I really really recommend that you do. Great television.

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